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Power of white in graphic design

Poets have written of cloth “white as the driven snow” (Shakespeare), “Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreath’d” (Milton), sea spray like “wild white horses” (Arnold), the moon as an “orbed maiden, with white fire laden” (Shelley). Tennyson’s Arthurian heroes rejoice that “the world is white with May.” As a colour, white is a metaphor for many emotions and for concepts ranging from purity to death…providing cool white space, making an emphatic statement.

“… in graphic design, white is too often thought of as something to cover up or get rid of, not something to explore and celebrate.”

Gail Deibler Finke
Cincinnati,
April 2000

White “space”

What is not,
helps us define what is.

What is not,
soon becomes what is.

The what is,
is what was note.

What was left out,
is just as important
as what is put in.

White space
is as real as what fills it.

All acts of creation start with a blank canvas (whitespace)…
use it wisely.

From book: White Graphics: The Power of White in Graphic Design by Gail Deibler Finke
Book on amazon